12-17-2005, 05:20 PM
Well due to deer season, family drama and an endless string of one thing after another I got a chance to wet a line. It's been since late october, one of the longest fishless snaps of me adult life.
Anyway I'll get to the report. I inched my way out on Chicken Creek East knowing that it had not been frozen for too long, finally got out far enough to drill a test hole and found 8" of solid ice, so I moved out a little farther and decided to give it a shot. First hole was in 15 feet of water and I was graphing fish before I cleared the slush from the hole. Got rigged up with the standard fodder and in the first 5 minutes BAM fish on! It sure seemed to be taking a lot of line and had some huge head shakes. After a good five minutes of gently playing up on the ice came my personal stawberry best 25" cut. A fat beautiful hook jawed male. Not bad for the first fish of the ice season.
Ended up iceing 12 or so between 1:00 and dusk. It was a little odd in the fact that the hottest fishing of the day was right when I got there and slowly tappered off throughout the day. Usually that last hour before the sun goes down gets pretty hot. All in all I caught three fish over the slot; the fat 25er,a thin 24"er, and a fat 23"er. All the others were between 18 and 20 except for one; A 16" cut that looked like it had whirling disease, real bad crooked spine. I wish I could have removed him, but with the slot I simply slid him back down the hole and hoped it wouldn't spread. The weather was perfect, hardly a breath of wind. I didn't even set up the tent until about 4:00 when it started to cool a little.
In years past I've been right up there with fuzzy searching out the early ice. I can't say I miss the pucker associated with my usually first ice trip, but it was great to finally get out and break the seal on a new ice season. Good luck to all and hope to see you out on the hard water soon.
[signature]
Anyway I'll get to the report. I inched my way out on Chicken Creek East knowing that it had not been frozen for too long, finally got out far enough to drill a test hole and found 8" of solid ice, so I moved out a little farther and decided to give it a shot. First hole was in 15 feet of water and I was graphing fish before I cleared the slush from the hole. Got rigged up with the standard fodder and in the first 5 minutes BAM fish on! It sure seemed to be taking a lot of line and had some huge head shakes. After a good five minutes of gently playing up on the ice came my personal stawberry best 25" cut. A fat beautiful hook jawed male. Not bad for the first fish of the ice season.
Ended up iceing 12 or so between 1:00 and dusk. It was a little odd in the fact that the hottest fishing of the day was right when I got there and slowly tappered off throughout the day. Usually that last hour before the sun goes down gets pretty hot. All in all I caught three fish over the slot; the fat 25er,a thin 24"er, and a fat 23"er. All the others were between 18 and 20 except for one; A 16" cut that looked like it had whirling disease, real bad crooked spine. I wish I could have removed him, but with the slot I simply slid him back down the hole and hoped it wouldn't spread. The weather was perfect, hardly a breath of wind. I didn't even set up the tent until about 4:00 when it started to cool a little.
In years past I've been right up there with fuzzy searching out the early ice. I can't say I miss the pucker associated with my usually first ice trip, but it was great to finally get out and break the seal on a new ice season. Good luck to all and hope to see you out on the hard water soon.
[signature]